Before he became a full-time composer, Chance played timpani with the Austin Symphony and later was an arranger for the Fourth and Eighth U.S. Army bands. Chance taught at the University of Kentucky from 1966 until his death in 1972. In August 1972, Chance was airing a tent in his garden when a metal pole contacted an electrified fence used to confine his dogs. Chance was accidentally electrocuted and died at 12:40 p.m. at Central Baptist Hospital from cardiac arrest. He and his wife Linda had two children.